Rabat – Lars Vilks, the Swedish artist who stirred worldwide controversy after he drew a cartoon depicting Prophet Muhammed in 2007, died in a car crash on Sunday, October 3.
The 75-year-old artist died near the southern town of Markaryd on Sunday, Swedish police said in a statement.
Vilks, who has been under police protection since the drawings were published, was traveling with two police officers when the police car collided with a truck. The car swerved into the path of the truck, and both vehicles erupted into flames.
Both police officers also died.
The truck driver was flown to a hospital while sustaining serious injuries.
Regional head of the Swedish police, Carina Persson said that the accident is an “inconceivable and terribly sad tragedy.”
The British media outlet, The Guardian, quoted a Swedish police spokesperson and described the accident as a “very tragic incident.”
“It is now important to all of us that we do everything we can to investigate what happened and what caused the collision,” the spokesperson said.
The same source added: “Initially, there is nothing that points to anyone else being involved.”
The Swedish artist had continuously received death threats after his drawings of the Prophet were published.
According to Turkish media outlet TRT World, terror organization Al Qaeda, offered a $100,000 reward for Vilks’ murder.
Diplomatic tension due to the drawings also erupted, prompting Swedish officials to conduct meetings with ambassadors from several Muslim countries to ease tensions.
Vilks was a subject of a gun attack at a “free speech conference” in Copenhagen in 2015.
The attack caused the death of a Danish film director.
